McCaul at Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing: Russia's Abduction of Ukrainian Children is 'Evil in Its Purest Form'

WASHINGTON - U.S. Congressman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) - chairman emeritus of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs - delivered the following remarks at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations hearing titled, "The Abduction of Ukrainian Children by the Russian Federation."

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Remarks as delivered:

I do want to thank you [Chairman Graham] and the Ranking Member Schatz for holding this important hearing and having us from the House who care about this issue deeply, and we've been following this for quite some time. You're putting a spotlight on this, and I can't say thank you enough.

And I agree with you [that] in these peace talks that are going on right now, Russia needs to understand these children must come home. They must be repatriated with their families.

We need an iron-clad security agreement, unlike the '94 Budapest Agreement that didn't have that. And as I passed the wartime supplemental in the House, passed by the Senate, Russia needs to pay for its own crimes in the REPO Act.

I met with Ukraine ambassador yesterday, who showed me video that Save Ukraine put together featuring these children and describing the Russian atrocities.

The Russian Federation has abducted at least 20,000 children - that we know of - and every expert I've talked to believes the real number is high, much higher than that.

They are also indoctrinating and militarizing Ukrainian children in the occupied territories - possibly up to a million.

According to the video, Russia has allocated 7 BILLION dollars in its 26-28 budget for a national project titled "youth and children," - essentially, militarized youth organizations.

The ambassador told me, again, that one million children live in the occupied territories - vulnerable to brainwashing and abuse. And more than 43,000 have already enrolled in Russia's paramilitary youth program.

… [I]n these territories, the textbooks spew false information and conspiracy theories about NATO and the free world.

All this is part of Russia's effort to turn future generations against Ukraine, the United States, and Europe because, in their words, they are preparing for a large-scale war against NATO.

It will not end at Donbas and the land bridge to Crimea. We have to be clear eyed in these negotiations.

Some of these children's parents have been threatened into giving up their kids.

[The kids] are shipped to Russia, stripped of their identities, tortured, forced to memorize propaganda, and told their country and their own families are "the enemy."

Finally, many of them are sent to the frontlines of the Russian war itself. Imagine a child age 16 being sent to the frontlines to fight against their own homeland.

Mr. Chairman, in documentary "Children in the Fire" - I'd recommend everybody watch this - they show a child taken in a prison where adults use electrodes to shock them under their fingernails and genitals. And I hate to even say that in public, but it is so horrific.

No child should ever endure that kind of barbarism. To me, it's good versus evil, and this is evil in its purest form.

And like the Chairman, I have met with a lot of these survivors. I've met with many of them who were sent to Russian camps, and they describe the forced indoctrination and the torture.

As a father of five, as you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, I can't imagine any of my children being kidnapped and indoctrinated against the United States of America. Imagine how Americans would feel if that happened to them.

I'm thankful, Chairman Graham, for your leadership, calling attention to this important issue. And I agree that any peace plan must include the repatriation of these children. And it must include the iron-clad security agreement.

We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past.

Unfortunately, the reporting I'm seeing out of Moscow shows Ukraine making concessions while Putin has made none. That is no surprise. I think he will drag this out.

He will continue his behavior - including the kidnapping and abuse of the children - until pressure is placed on him and he is forced to be stopped.

We must hold those responsible accountable and ensure this ends - not only for Ukraine's sake, but for our own sake and for the world.

Russia's attempt to re-engineer an entire generation is a battle plan. In their words, they are preparing children for war against NATO.

This is a national security imperative - and beyond that, it's a moral imperative. This is a time - all of us on both sides of the aisle - for moral clarity, because history will judge us by what we do here and now. And it will judge us [by] how we respond today.

So again, Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this important hearing. I look forward to working with you and this committee.

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